Abingdon Marathon Training - 17 weeks to go
Monday 26th June 2017
Week 2 of marathon training began with a lot of snoozing! Alarm went off repeatedly between 5:45 (the initial alarm) and 7:15am (the time we managed to drag ourselves out of bed!). Consequently, we decided it best to leave our run until the evening - I think I was still recovering from Jennifer's hen weekend!
After work, John and I headed out for 5 miles before yoga. A gentle 9:14mm pace before 1 hour of stretching and strengthening which included the pose of shoulder stand; a position which is very intense and finishes with the instructor casually asking you to drop your feet down onto the floor behind your head! Hmm...more work needed before I achieve that one I think!
Tuesday 27th June 2017
Another much needed lie in this morning as we had a race in the evening. This was the final race in the Aztec West fast 5k series. John and I had agreed to do 8 miles tonight - 3 before the race as a warm up, 3 miles during the race and then 2 to cool down. I was feeling quite good after the first 3 miles so decided to go for a PB. My PB is currently 18:50 which I achieved 3 races ago. Last race, I went out too fast and ended up with a 37 second swing out of the three miles! So my tactic for today was to go for an even pace of 6mm and try to have a smaller swing.
Because today was the mob match (clubs competing against clubs) we had a really good turnout of GWR runners.
Unfortunately, I had one of those races where you feel like your going fast, everything is working well and you're on for a good time...then you look at your watch and your running 10 seconds a mile slower than you should be! Annoying but probably a result of marathon training starting and the mileage starting to increase. Here are my splits:
Mile 1 - 6:06
Mile 2 - 6:20
Mile 3 - 6:25
So I wasn't anywhere near 6mm pace but I did have a smaller swing (19 seconds) and my heart rate was considerably lower than in previous races.
Fortunately, my feelings of disappointment weren't to last long...As it was the last race of the series, the prizes for the season were being given out. The race director started with the men. When John's name was called as second senior man for the whole series, I was overjoyed. He was awarded with a trophy and his face a wonderful mix of surprise and pride. Even more surprised to hear his name was Woody who was awarded with 3rd senior man. Marcus' name was then called as 3rd vet 40 and Fi as 2nd vet 35. Last year I'd finished 2nd in the series so I was hoping to equal or better that result...finally, my name was called - I'd won the series! It was wonderful to look around at my group of friends and club mates and see such a huge selection of trophies. Well done everyone.
Wednesday 28th June 2017
Wednesday night is always GWR club night. We had hoped to do a run in double figures but the arrival of the new club kit meant we needed to drive it to club. Lack of enthusiasm for the 10 mile route meant we opted for the summer 8 mile route instead. Last time I ran the summer 8 I didn't especially enjoy it and so developed a bit of an anti-8 feeling. However, today's run felt really good so I have a new-found appreciation for the 8 mile route!
Thursday 29th June 2017
Knowing that I had a mega-busy day at work meant that I knew I had to run in the morning. I managed to drag both myself and John out of bed in time (just) to get a 5 mile recovery run done before work.
Friday 30th June 2017
Tonight was the 3rd race in the GWR Towpath series. After winning this series last year, I decided not to run any of the races this year and to focus on helping with the organsing. As I knew I wouldn't be able to get much running in during the evening, I decided to run to school (3.2 miles) then I had running club at lunchtime (1.3 miles) then I ran to the towpath (2 miles) before running between the race HQ and start line a number of times (2.3 miles). A grand total of around 9 miles for the day - not too shabby.
The Towpath race went really smoothly once again. If you live in or around Bristol and fancy giving it a go, all the details can be found on our club's newly updated website http://www.greatwesternrunners.org.uk/ (good skills John!).
After the race, a group of us headed down to Salt and Malt - a newly opened GLUTEN FREE fish and chip shop. Having not had fish and chips for over a year now, I had been really looking forward to this opening on my doorstep! It has been open for 3 weeks now and we've visited about 5 times...oops!
Saturday 1st July 2017
Saturday is parkrun day! We ran via the Aardman HQ to catch up with our mate...
We've missed a few parkruns recently but were looking forward to this one because it was our friend James' 50th. Planning to run steadily with James, we set off in the middle of the field and spent the first half of the run overtaking people and chatting merrily. John -eagle eyed - Cox managed to spot triathlete extraordinaire Chrissie Wellington running up ahead. We picked the pace up in the second half of the run to finish in a respectable (and palindromic!) time of 21:12.
Having recently read Chrissie's autobiography, we couldn't resist popping over to ask for a cheeky pic. We were pleasantly surprised by how warm, friendly and chatty she was. Often, when you meet famous athletes, they are happy to pose for a picture and then they politely carry on. Chrissie seemed genuinely keen to chat and share her future ultra running plans - John suggested that she try Bristol's Green Man Ultra - watch this space!
After waiting for the customary 50th parkrun celebratory cake which did not materialise (tut tut James!), we ran home giving us a total of 7 miles for the morning.
In the evening, we visited another newly opened Cargo 2 restaurant called Tare. This restaurant offers a brilliant dining experience. I won't say more about it because I am taking my family here for my birthday meal and I don't want to give too much away!
Sunday 2nd July 2017
After having a few drinks last night, we decided not to set an alarm but instead allow our bodies to catch up on sleep. Unusually, we managed to sleep through until 10am! By the time we'd properly woken up and contemplated running, it was getting rather hot outside. So we decided to leave our long run until the evening. This meant we had a morning of relaxing on the balcony reading our books. I'm currently reading 'Running with Kenyans' a brilliant, inspiring book - recommended to my by John - about a man who takes his whole family out to Kenya so he can find out the secrets of the Kenya success. So far, I've learnt that the secrets are as follows:
1) Kenyan athletes start off as very poor children who have no choice but to run to school every day for fear of being beaten for being late.
2) Eating ugali - a maize based food which Kenyan's love and eat all the time.
3) Not eating loads of fat and processed foods.
4) Drinking milk with cows blood in...
I've started doing number 1...I did actually find myself looking in Asda for number 2...I probably should give number 3 a go ...I'll probably avoid number 4!
Really enjoying the book and would recommend it to any running enthusiasts!
For lunch today, we decided to cook our first roast dinner as a couple! It was a huge success. We had lamb, roast potatoes, parsnips, carrots, asparagus, gluten free gravy, stuffing and home made gluten free Yorkshire puddings - yum!
After letting our roast dinner go down and having a little nap - living the Kenyan lifestyle- we headed out for our long run at 6pm. The aim of the run (for me) was to get a solid long run in with some miles at my new marathon pace. This would be the first time I would be officially training with sub 3 in mind and I was feeling a little apprehensive. The planned route was to go along the towpath to Pill, across the Avonmouth bridge and back down the Portway.
John and I ran the first two miles together before he paused for 1 minute to give me a head start. I really enjoy running like this as it gives the feeling that I get when I am leading a race - trying to stop others from catching me! The plan was to do 4 miles at marathon pace. I spent the first mile trying to get into a rhythm. My legs aren't yet used to running at 6:45mm pace so I had to make quite a lot of adjustments. It didn't help that the ground along the towpath is very undulating. I settled into more or a rhythm in mile 2; I felt like I was working hard but it felt sustainable. John passed me at 2.5 miles and yelled out that he was only going to do 3 miles at pace rather than 4 as planned. When you're working hard and someone gives you the opportunity to do less, you take it! So after 3 miles at less than target marathon pace, I eased back and tried to give my legs a chance to recover before the 2nd set of marathon pace miles. Feeling rather pleased with 3 miles so far, I was looking forward to catching up with John and sharing my success with him.
Having not ran further than 10 miles since the Boston marathon, at the 10 mile point, I was starting to tire a bit and wished that I'd brought water or a gel with me. When the time came for our next 3 marathon paced miles, I was very glad that it was on a downhill section. Even with the downhill, 6:45mm pace was proving hard to sustain. When my watch beeped for the end of the 2nd mile I just had to stop. My head started spinning and I realised that I was very dehydrated. Rather than continuing with the marathon pace efforts, I decided I needed to just finish the run with a couple of slow miles.
15 miles in total at an average of 7:47 pace.
5 marathon paced efforts:
Mile 3 - 6:46
Mile 4 - 6:43
Mile 5- 6:38
Mile 12 - 6:48
Mile 13 - 6:51
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